SOCIAL INFLUENCE Compliance and Conformity

1 19 Nov 2003 17 (2002/01/18)P1: Rev. Psychol. 2004. 55:591 621doi: 2004 by Annual Reviews. All rights reservedFirst published online as a Review in Advance on July 11, 2003 SOCIALINFLUENCE: Compliance and ConformityRobert B. Cialdini and Noah J. GoldsteinDepartment of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1104;email: Wordsobedience, norms, foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, motivationnAbstractThis review covers recent developments in the SOCIAL INFLUENCE liter-ature, focusing primarily on Compliance and Conformity research published between1997 and 2002. The principles and processes underlying a target s susceptibility to out-side influences are considered in light of three goals fundamental to rewarding humanfunctioning. Specifically, targets are motivated to form accurate perceptions of realityand react accordingly, to develop and preserve meaningful SOCIAL relationships, and tomaintain a favorable self-concept.

2 Consistent with the current movement in complianceand Conformity research, this review emphasizes the ways in which these goals interactwith external forces to engender SOCIAL INFLUENCE processes that are subtle, indirect, andoutside of :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::591 Compliance :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::592 Goal of Accuracy:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::592 Goal of Affiliation::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::598 Goal of Maintaining a Positive Self-Concept:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::602 Conformity :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::606 Goal of Accuracy:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::606 Goal of Affiliation::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::609 Goal of Maintaining a Positive Self-Concept:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::611 CONCLUSION:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::613 INTRODUCTIONThe study of SOCIAL INFLUENCE is renowned for its demonstration and explicationof dramatic psychological phenomena that often occur in direct response to overtsocial forces.

3 Some of the most memorable images from the field s history de-pict participants struggling to comprehend their circumstances and to respond inaccordance with their private judgments in the face of external pressures to do oth-erwise. These images include a middle-aged gentleman nearly brought to hystericsby a stranger in a lab coat, as exhibited in Milgram s (1974) work on obedienceto authority. They also include that bespectacled and rather befuddled young man0066-4308/04/0204-0591$ Nov 2003 17 (2002/01/18)P1: GCE592 CIALDINI GOLDSTEINin Asch s (1956) line-judgment Conformity experiments, whose perceptions pit-ted the likelihood of an incorrect consensus against the likelihood of an incorrecteyeglass prescription. In these classic illustrations, the targets of INFLUENCE wereconfronted with explicit SOCIAL forces that were well within conscious contrast, Freedman & Fraser s (1966) seminal investigation of the foot-in-the-door technique, an example of Compliance gaining without overt pressure, revealedthe subtler aspects of SOCIAL INFLUENCE .

4 Although all three lines of research havebeen prominent in stimulating decades of insightful inquiries into the nature ofcompliance and Conformity , scholars in recent years have been inclined to exploretopics more in line with the latter approach; that is, researchers have tended toconcentrate their efforts on examining SOCIAL INFLUENCE processes that are subtle,indirect, and SOCIAL -cognitive movement has also reverberated throughout contemporaryinfluence research, as investigators attempt to uncover the ways in which targets implicit and explicit goals affect information processing and decision-making ininfluence contexts. As an organizational framework, this chapter focuses on theextent to which three central motivations to be accurate, to affiliate, and to main-tain a positive self-concept (see also Cialdini & Trost 1998, Wood 2000) drivetargets cognitions and behaviors in the areas of Compliance and Conformity .

5 Weplace a special emphasis on scholarly work published between 1997 and refers to a particular kind of response acquiescence to a particularkind of communication a request. The request may be explicit, as in the directsolicitation of funds in a door-to-door campaign for charitable donations, or it maybe implicit, as in a political advertisement that touts the qualities of a candidatewithout directly asking for a vote. But in all cases, the target recognizes that he orshe is being urged to respond in a desired of AccuracyStated simply, people are motivated to achieve their goals in the most effectiveand rewarding manner possible. A person s desire to respond appropriately to adynamic SOCIAL situation demands an accurate perception of reality. The need tocorrectly interpret and react to incoming information is of paramount importance,particularly to targets of Compliance -gaining attempts.

6 One inaccurate perception,cognition, or behavior could mean the difference between getting a bargain andbeing duped. A great deal of recent Compliance research has investigated how tar-gets of various INFLUENCE techniques process information and respond to requests asthey attempt to gain an accurate construal of the situation and respond AND AROUSALMuch of the Compliance research on arousal and affectivestates has focused on the effect of discrete emotions on targets cognitions as well19 Nov 2003 17 (2002/01/18)P1: GCESOCIAL INFLUENCE593as on the eventual outcome of the INFLUENCE attempt. After receiving a request, tar-gets use their feelings as cues for effective responding. For example, Whatley et al.(1999) differentiated between the emotions and related goals associated with publicand private Compliance in response to a favor.

7 They posited that individuals avoid oralleviate feelings of shame and fear via public Compliance , and guilt and pity via pri-vate Compliance . Several other researchers have also focused on the impact of tar-gets actual or anticipated guilt on Compliance ( , Boster et al. 1999; O Keefe &Figg e 1997, 1999; Rind 1997; Tusing & Dillard 2000). In addition, investigatorshave explored the INFLUENCE of mere arousal, finding that the simple arousal elicitedby performing an interesting task enhances the likelihood of Compliance with arequest (Rind 1997, Rind & Strohmetz 2001).Searching for a broader perspective on the role of affect in Compliance sce-narios, Forgas (1998a) argued that the conditions under which affect mediatesthe processing of and responses to requests can be explained by the affect in-fusion model (AIM; Forgas 1995).

8 The AIM contends that a target s mood willpermeate the processing of a request to the extent that the processing is effort-ful and exhaustive (Forgas 1995, 1998a). That is, an individual s affective stateis likely to be integrated into the processing of the request in situations that callfor constructive elaboration of the available stimulus information, require theactivation and use of previous knowledge structures, and result in the creationof new knowledge from the combination of stored information and new stim-ulus details (Forgas 2001, p. 152). Forgas (1998a) suggested that the process-ing of a request will be more sensitive to mood if the appeal is unconventional(requiring more substantive processing), and rather impervious to mood if it isconventional.

9 Combined with other findings demonstrating the role of the AIMin influencing the communication and bargaining strategies employed by com-pliance requesters (Forgas 1999) and negotiators (Forgas 1998b), the evidenceas a whole appears to validate the notion that mood effects in Compliance sce-narios are mediated by both the targets and requesters levels of AIM, like many other theories of affect and cognition, focuses on processesthat occur while an individual is experiencing a transient emotion or set of emo-tions. Dolinski & Nawrat (1998) established the success of a technique designedto increase Compliance immediately after a particularly arousing mood has sub-sided. In one demonstration of their fear-then-relief procedure, a card matchingthe general appearance of a parking ticket was placed either under a windshieldwiper (commonly where parking tickets are found) or on a door of illegally parkedcars in Poland.

10 The cards placed on the door were advertisements (No Anxiety),whereas the windshield wiper cards were either fake parking tickets (Anxiety)or advertisements (Anxiety-then-Relief ). Drivers who experienced apprehensionfollowed by assuagement were more likely to comply with a request than thosewho continued to be anxious or those never made anxious in the first place. Theauthors suggested that fear-then-relief participants behaved in a relatively mind-less manner, caused by a diversion of resources to cognitions and counterfactualsregarding the fear-provoking Nov 2003 17 (2002/01/18)P1: GCE594 CIALDINI GOLDSTEINTHAT S-NOT-ALL TECHNIQUEAs in the fear-then-relief procedure, targets in com-pliance situations are often burdened with the task of correctly comprehending,evaluating, and responding to requests in a relatively short time, and therefore lackthe luxury of entirely deliberate and rational decision-making.